“Are all cats gray in the dark?”

“Are all cats gray in the dark?” – Explored through coats, quotes, tails and tales

A talk by Dr. Shomita Mukherjee, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History

Dr. Shomita Mukherjee, a principal scientist at Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History(SACON), Coimbatore has been working extensively on various small cats in North East India. She gave a talk on the diversity of small cats like the Jungle Cat, Marble cat, Leopard cat, Clouded leopard and the Fishing cat which aren’t necessarily given the same importance and conservation status as the big cats (Tiger, Lion & Leopard).

Her talk gave us interesting insights into their nocturnal world. The distribution and behaviour of these elusive carnivores in relation to our land use patterns and their evolution told us tales which had to be heard. Shomita was patient enough to bust all our myths about cats.

Little did we know that there is a need for drastic change in our concept of ‘waste land’, awareness in regarding to the conservation status of small cats and tolerance towards them for their survival.